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Alice and the Wonderland Creatures

Alice
is a seven year old girl who comes from an upper-middle class family in
England. She appears as a little girl with an enormous yet suspicious
curiosity. Her expectations towards the world are challenged by the fact
that regularity is something, in some way, she has to face and
reluctantly accept. Therefore, an object to express her creativity,
either ideas or questions, or both, is needed. Wonderland appears as the
object where Alice gets challenged with the regularity she complains
about. This regularity is unfortunately her own behavior and manners.

The
White Rabbit, for example, surprises Alice by mistaking her as his
servant. Technically she is an upper-middle class family member, hence,
being treated as a low person kind of shocks her. Another example is
when the Duchess nurses the baby in a way that opposes what Alice has
been knowing of. The challenge rises up when the March Hare and the Mad
Hatter invites her to do and to discuss about something that crosses her
regular activities. Then, she gets upset during her encounter with the
slow Mock Turtle who speaks about pointless stuffs most of the time.

Retrieving
to the very first situation the book introduces its storyline, when
Alice and her sister are sitting on the bank, it can be seen that the
two are from a wealthy family, as both of them obtain the fortune to sit
in chill while reading a book. A book here is a symbol for an
education. At the time Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written, the
situation in England, the country Alice is living, was not friendly for
children. It was when the Industrial Revolution occurred. Children from
the low caste were forced to work.

There
was a high demand for labor when revolution first came resulting the
families from rural areas migrate to industrialized cities to find work
in the hope for a better life. However, life was not so easy in the
cities. People were paid low meanwhile they had to survive the high
demands for life. Parents, as a result, make their children work no
matter how young they were, without considering their education needs.
Feeding the stomach was far more important rather than going to school.
This led to a high children labor in factories. To make it worse,
children were not treated well as they were considered fool and weak.
Masters made them overworked and underpaid, which the children could not
resist because they had to do it to continue living. This situation
went on from 1700 to the beginning of 1900. (http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/2002_p7/ak_p7/childlabor.html)

The
children labor fortunately does not occur to Alice and her sister as
seen by the fact that they are having a good life. Observed by this
phenomena, the two sisters must be from a settled kindred. They do not
need to worry about how to feed themselves, instead, they desire
something more than just amenities. During all scenes in the story,
Alice shows that she is well behaved and has got good manners, another
characteristic of a Victorian child. She talks politely and acts gently.
Even when she gets upset, still, she tries to get her senses together.
Indirectly she indicates her sister’s manners, too, as they come from
the same background.

White Rabbit

When
there is an adventure, there is also a trigger that pulls out bravery
to break the box. In this case, Alice’s curiosity is the thing that gets
pulled out, which is then supported by bravery. Her emerging trigger is
White Rabbit with his waistcoat-pocket and watch, who is also the first
Wonderland creature that Alice gets to see. The rabbit leads Alice to
enter Wonderland and guides her when she gets stuck in tough
situations.

There
are scenes of White Rabbit saving Alice and guiding her to the next
scene. He seems unconsciously to do the guidance, making things look
like they are just an accident. In a scene, the rabbit drops his fan and
gloves in front of Alice out of nowhere and does not realize it. The
fan and gloves help the Victorian girl grow to the size she needs to be.
This accidental occasion occurs in another scene, too, when the rabbit
mistakes Alice as Mary Ann, his servant. Then, Alice is carried to the
next destination: the rabbit’s house. Frankly, there is an interesting
fact that, in Wonderland, White Rabbit always shows up when Alice is
crying and lost direction. He gets involved whenever the situation is
considered heavy.

White
Rabbit always seems to be in a rush. He also keeps mentioning the
Duchess and how he would lose his head due to lateness. This hurry the
rabbit shows can be considered as the trigger to Alice’s adventures
because Alice gets the motivation to chase him whenever he is rushing
away. If White Rabbit moves slowly, everything would be much simpler for
the little girl. She would have had just easily dangled after him and
asked him stuffs about Wonderland.

Cheshire Cat

Most
of the characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are apparently
uneasy towards certain things and people, just like everyone towards the
Queen of Hearts; the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and Dormouse towards
the Time; and the Mock Turtle towards sadness. However, this does not
apply to Cheshire Cat. Illustrated with a big smile on his face, the cat
makes use of that smile as his characteristic. He always plays cool,
not afraid of anyone including the Queen of Hearts, and stands on his
own side. Moreover, he has the power to disappear that makes him hard to
catch when needed to be caught – especially when he is sentenced to
dead execution. He gives a contribution to Alice’s journey with his wise
advices and friendly conversation. As he plays friendly, Alice
considers him as the only friend she has in Wonderland to talk about her
feelings.

Caterpillar

Not
only White Rabbit is a guide for Alice, but also Caterpillar with his
direct advises, unlike the rabbit who leads with accidental occurrences.
Caterpillar is sitting on a mushroom and smoking a hookah when Alice
approaches to him. Seemingly, he is not friendly and talks strictly
towards the little girl. However, his advice to eat the mushroom is what
leads Alice to grow to her proper size.

Eating
the mushroom connotes that Alice needs to adapt to the new environment,
as expressed by Caterpillar. Whichever mushroom side is eaten, the
result is the same, and she grows differently again. Therefore, it does
not really matter the which of which, but what matters is her
willingness to accept the fact that she is going to grow the way she
should be in Wonderland.

Mad Hatter

Of
all the nonsense she gets through, Mad Hatter is the one who upsets
Alice the most. He is also able to crack the Victorian manner out of her
only by asking simple questions. His nonsense question “Why is a raven
like a writing desk?” challenges Alice to find the answer. She even gets
the confidence to show her smartness, the one thing about herself that
she is very proud of. However, when she gives up and asks for the
answer, Mad Hatter admits that he has not had any slight idea. Hearing
this, Alice’s jaw literally drops. The hatter only gives a pointless
question and makes her fall for it, even makes her give an effort to
answer. It makes her furious and rude. During the mad tea party, the
hatter provokes Alice with his innocent yet resenting statements several
times.

One
thing enticing about Mad Hatter is his knowledge about and professedly
friendship with the Time, whom Alice has always thought as an inanimate
object but turns out as an animate one in Wonderland.

During
her journey in Wonderland, Alice always acts out like she has figured
things out by demonstrating what exists in real world, her own real
world. However, in the scene where she is having a mad tea party, this
perspective is overturned. It turns out that she has not known so much
about things. In this case, the Time is the matter. Alice thinks the
Time does regular turnaround, meanwhile in fact, in Wonderland, it is
able to stop itself, and even to take orders to stop or to continue
ticking. Mad Hatter, fortunately, is the one who serves Alice this
striking fact.

Queen of Hearts

Alice
has met many illogical creatures, but none of them can compare to the
Queen of Hearts’ characteristics. Not only illogical, the Queen is also
arrogant, tyrant, arrogant, and dominant. She constantly gives orders to
cut off other creatures’ head when she feels uncomfortable with them –
although in fact, no execution is actually held. Being as a queen, she
plays a role as the ruler and the most authoritative figure. Even the
king asks her to give orders, indicating there is no one above her who
can impudently enjoin.

One
thing that the queen likes to do is playing croquet, a normal game
according to Alice’s knowledge, but in Wonderland, the game is
completely different and tends to be ridiculous. During the game, the
queen shows two sides of her personality. One has been mentioned
previously that she is arrogant, tyrant, etc., and another one, she
shows her good side; gentle and thoughtful side.

Unlike
how she deals with other creatures rudely and arbitrarily, especially
to the Duchess whom apparently she loathes the most, the Queen of Hearts
treats Alice nicely and talks to her gently. She even pays attention to
Alice’s nescience of the Mock Turtle, then offers her a way to meet
him. She never orders to chop off Alice’s head – well, until the very
end of the book when the little girl infuriates and offences her. One
way or another, in some way, the Queen of Hearts reminds me of the
characteristics of a mother, which are sometimes furious and choosey,
but also gentle as well as caring. Possibly, the queen shadowy acts as
the mother of Wonderland and Alice arises as her darling.